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Why Williamson County voting results came in after midnight

Why Williamson County voting results came in after midnight

Discrepancies between the actual number of ballots cast, and the figures reported by some polling places, delayed the release of the last round of election day voting results in Williamson County primary elections.

Results from the final 11 polling places, out of 77, were posted at 1:22 a.m. The totals were “accurate and correct,” county elections administrator Jason Barnett said.

For the first time since the November 2012 elections, Williamson County made both paper ballots and electronic voting available on election day at the request of the Democratic and Republican parties, Barnett said.

Poll workers report the total number of ballots cast on a certificate, and in some instances, those certificates suggested that lump sum indicated just the number of paper ballots cast, Barnett said.

When county elections officials counted the number of paper ballots for some polling places, and realized the figure was less than the one on the certificate, they had to verify how many ballots were actually cast by using the rosters that voters sign, Barnett said.

Barnett declined to say how many polling places were affected by the paperwork issue, which was first discovered around 11 p.m., but said it was a “small amount.”

Counting the number of ballots cast is an entirely different process than tabulating votes for races, Barnett said.

“I’m not blaming anyone for making errors, I certainly don’t want to throw any poll workers under the bus,” Barnett said. “You’re talking about poll workers who don’t do this every day.”

Barnett, who was appointed elections administrator in mid-2013, said he would look at how future elections could be run more efficiently. In the upcoming May elections, all early and election day voting will be done electronically.

Williamson County was one of the last counties in Texas to report election day voting totals in the November 2013 elections because of glitches in electronic voting machines.

Voter turnout in the March primary elections was 12.58 percent in Williamson County, less than than the 15.42 percent turnout in 2012 and the 17.82 percent in 2010.

Of the ballots cast, 77 percent, or 24,756 were Republican. The other 7,236 were Democratic.